Koningsdam Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I've been to Mexican Riviera more than 10 years ago and still amazes me

With all of the ample itineraries, activities and dining options, make sure you research your options before you choose. Avoid cruises with full or multiple days at sea.

Holland America has videos of what to expect on a Koningsdam cruise. They make a big promotion about the music venue, which has no music most of the time. What music I heard was for the most part a big disappointment. Evening entertainment, except on 3 nights, was a TV video like you can see in your living room. Food is not what you see in the videos. A lot of cheap ingredients made to look fancy but still tasting like leftovers. The main dinning room has an extra charge for steak or lobster; otherwise it is stir fry, pasta, or casserole as a choice. One night I skipped dinner entirely because the choices in the dining room and the Lido buffet were so bad I chose to eat some sliced tomato with anchovies. By far the worse food I have ever seen on a cruise ship. For example, on the pre-cruise video you will see a Margarita Pizza with a beautiful crust, fresh basil, and mozzarella cheese cooked to perfection. The two on board pizzas I was served were inedible and consisted of a very thin disk shaped crust cooked to a hard cracker-like crust and covered with a thin film of what had been tomato but was now just a dried desiccated hard red paste and covered with cheddar cheese; not mozzarella. There was no basil fresh or dried. In summary, my life got a whole lot better once I was finally off that bait and switch excuse for an enjoyable cruise. I have had several bad cruises on Holland America and never again will we set foot on this ship.

Will not go on HAL again. Found service to be subpar.

I will not be cruising on Holland America again. Princess was a far better experience.

So disorganized. Not typical for Holland America. Try a different ship.

All in all, the cruise was a good experience to ‘wind down’ after the whole pandemic situation

we thought Holland would be an upscale experience...We were wrong. We do approx. 2 cruises a year (2022 sping in Alaska on Carnival... Oct. on Holland,, on Dec .2 going to Caribbean on Royal Caribbean)

We enjoyed most aspects of this cruise, however we did feel a little limited by the lack of a quality rock n roll band and the mediocrity of the piano bar performer. We found the band in the B B King Blues club to be the best band on the ship and we enjoyed their performances immensely. We also caught the comedian one night and he was also good.

Go on this cruise. It is wonderful. The scenery is breath taking and the ports and excursions are amazing.

Overall, it was a good cruise. As with all trips, the weather plays a heavy role in enjoyment. I was a little disappointed in the ports and the viewing of the passage. Maybe because I had spent 16 days doing a land tour by RV of Alaska in the past. Between the two, land exploration is far better.

Very enjoyable and affordable (still Covid impacted). Beautiful ship

Great food, great staff, great weather, great scenery, great entertainment, met great people on the ship, had a great time. Konningsdam is an excellent ship, you really never knew you were moving until you looked out the window. Well laid out, Crows nest, Fitness room, indoor pool with retractable roof, outdoor pool, Lido Deck, Dining Room, Pinnacle Grill, all spectacular. BB King and Rock and Roll bands were stellar. Demographic was 50's to 80's and 1200 passengers on a 2600 passenger ship. Very comfortable and we made many friends from mid 50 to mid 80. Suggest that entertainment and bars run an extra hour and there needs to be a way for passengers to easily know how many of their 15 drinks (in drink package) they have used.

It seems they’re out of practice having two years off. Customer service is definitely lacking

great cruise, ship was beautiful crew was outstanding. We have never seen a cruise director less then we seen Nick on this cruise. It seemed that he was not ready for the job, unable to put out the little fires that came up

Service Great! Accommodations….. nice…. Food….. not so great. Based on my answers, it says 4.1 stars, I’d say it’s a little lower than that actually. The friendliness and nice attention from the staff overall was what made it worth it.

Good food, good accommodations, good staff, entertaining, very restful

We had boarding in San Diego. I did all the pre boarding requirements on the HAL website and on VeriFLY. Our boarding pass said that a REAL ID-compliant driver's license was ok BUT the dock personnel did not seem to know that, we got shuffled over to another area and were finally told it was ok and we were allowed onboard. The Koningsdam is a nice ship and seemed to be very clean. We got to our cabin and our ship cards were in an envelope by the door. We had a Balcony cabin and it was nice just like the other HAL ships we were on. We met our cabin attendants Alex and Mas and they were outstanding the entire cruise. Our first night we had reservations at the Pinnacle Grill. The Clothesline Candied Bacon was yummy! The steaks were just OK, but the service was very good. The main dining room was not crowded but we asked for a sharing table and they never put anyone else with us. The next night we asked for a sharing table and to be by the window. They put us four tables away from the window but we did get 3 people to join us. Food was ok and service was adequate. The rest of the cruise we just ate at the Ledo Market which had a better variety of choices and good service. We also tried the New York Deli & Pizza and the Dive-in for lunch which we both liked. We LOVED the Lincoln Center Stage musicians, they were excellent and we kept coming back for more! The World Stage Step One Dance Company was also very good. We did a few ship excursions and had a big problem with the "Hop on off harbor tour". We started 12:30 pm and they gave us a time of 5 pm for the harbor tour. The problem was that the Hop On bus had a end time of 6 pm and we were left stranded after our 1 hour harbor tour! We talked to a number of the Big Bus personnel and the best they could tell us was we had to walk back to the ship or take a tram. We ended up waking back which took 25 minutes. The next day we take with Jazz on the ship excursion team and she was very helpful and understanding. Ensenada - just walked around the port compound, no stores were opened. San Francisco - Muir Woods & Sausalito, highly recommended. Hop on off & harbor tour, Do not pay for the bundled harbor tour. The harbor tour itself was good but we had problems. Avalon, Catalina Island - We walked around the town a bit NO ship tours were offered! Santa Barbara - Did Santa Barbara By Trolley, it was pretty good. We were very disappointed in the reverse itinerary that the ship took. We wanted more time in Catalina (Avalon) and a lot LESS in Ensenada! Whoever made that change should have a new position.

We booked a 3rd HAL cruise- Hawaii, while onboard.

Let me start off by saying, this was my first cruise. I took my 5 year old with my parents. We had a blast. Zoe was treated like a princess by every single person on the ship. She loved every minute of it. Our room steward was very attentive and helpful. I wish I had written down more names because everyone was fantastic. Seriously, every single person. Couple mentions of employees who went out of their way to make things extra fun during our week for myself and Zoe are: Guru - sous chef in Lido Allyson - Club HAL Priscilla - nails Putu Agus - lido and dining room Jodi - dining room